Documents are commonly prepared and secured for distribution and later retrieval for use by others. It is often desirable to bind these documents in a condition that facilitates review of the contents contained therein. It is known to punch a staple through the sheets of the document together with a stapler. Although such a mechanism is easy and inexpensive to use, the bound pages may rip from use, the folded ends of the staples are unsightly and often scratch items that come in contact with them and the pages are not protected against external elements. In addition, unless the document consists a fair number of pages, the document may be flimsy to be easily handled. Moreover, the overall appearance of the stapled documents does not compare to professionally bound documents.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,111 reference is directed to a binder system to conceal edges of pages held therein. The binder system has a cover with front and back segments and a fold segment that has at least a pair of spaced scorelines defining at least one fold subsegment. A pair of adhesive strips is attached alongside the fold subsegments and is covered by adhesive strip covers. The sheets of a document are first stapled to each other, and then the stack is inserted between the covers with the stapled edge proximate to the fold segment, and secured therein by the adhesive strips. This binder system conceals the edges of the ages and prevents exposure of the folded ends of the staple. As the binder system is secured only to the outer sheets of the stack, the stack is held within the binder by the strength of the adhesive material, which may become weakened with use.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,727,816 discloses a stapled report cover having a plurality of panels. The panels are folded over a plurality of pages that form a stack with bottom and top sheets. A binding margin on the stack is adjacent to a binding edge of the stack. A broad top cover panel extends to the binding margin, and a concealment panel is attached to the cover panel and extends across the narrow binding margin. The concealment panel is joined to a broad back panel a spine fold. The stack is fastened with a fastener at the narrow binding margin, and a layer of adhesive is located between the document cover and the binding margin of the stack to conceal the fastener where it protrudes from the top sheet of the stack.
Further, U.S. Pat. No. 4,548,426 discloses a method of making a report cover which allows a stack of paper held therein to lie flat. The Lockhart method includes a report cover that uses two panels, one of which includes three parallel hinges. One of the hinges on the panel remains pivotable to prevent pages of the report from "flying" back or the report from closing on its own when the cover is in an opened configuration.